deposits the importance of those of North Carolina greatly declined.
It was along the coast of North Carolina that Europeans in 1585
made the first discovery of iron ore within the present limits of the
United States. Iron ores are widely distributed within the state,
and there have been times since the eve of the War of Independence
when the mining of it was an industry of relatively great importance.
In 1908 the product amounted to 48,522 long tons (all magnetite),
and was valued at $76,877; almost the entire product is from the
Cranberry mines, near Cranberry, Mitchell county. The state has
two small areas in which bituminous coal occurs; one in the basin
of the Dan and one in the basin of the Deep. Very little coal was
produced in the state until the Civil War, when, in 1862 and again
in 1863, 30,000 short tons were obtained for the relief of the Confederate
government, an amount which up to 1905, when the yield
was only 1557 short tons (falling off from 7000 short tons in 1904),
had not since been equalled; in 1906, in 1907 and in 1908 no coal
was mined in the state. The most valuable immediate product of
the state’s mines and quarries for nearly every year from 1890 to
1908 was building stones of granite and gneiss, which are found in all
parts of the state west of the “Fall Line”; the best grades of
granite are quarried chiefly in Gaston, Iredell, Rowan, Surry and
Wilkes counties. The value of the building stone increased from
$150,000 in 1892 to $800,177 (of which $764,272 was the value of
granite) in 1908. Talc also is widely distributed in the state; the
most extensive beds are in the south-western counties, Swain and
Cherokee.
Manufactures.—During the quarter of a century between 1880 and 1905 a great change was wrought in the industrial life of the state by a phenomenal growth of cotton manufacturing. A cotton mill was erected in Lincoln county about 1813, and by 1840 about 25 small mills were in operation within the state. When the Civil War was over, the abnormally high price of cotton made cotton raising for more than a decade a great assistance to the people in recovering from ruin, but when the price had steadily declined from 23·98 cents a pound in 1870 to 10·38 cents a pound in 1879, they turned to the erection and operation of cotton mills. In 1880 the total value of the manufactured products of the state was $20,095,037; in 1900 the value of the cotton manufactures alone was $28,372,789, and in 1905 $47,254,054. The rapid extension of tobacco culture was accompanied by a corresponding growth in the manufacture of chewing and smoking tobacco and snuff, and some of the brands have a wide reputation. The product increased in value from $4,783,484 in 1890 to $25,488,721 in 1905. In 1890 the lumber and timber products, valued at $5,898,742, ranked second among the state’s manufactures; by 1905 their value had increased to $15,731,379. The value of the state’s factory product for 1900 was $85,274,083, and that for 1905, $142,520,776, an advance of 67·1%. The cotton mills are mostly in the Piedmont Plateau Region; Durham, Durham county, and Winston, Forsyth county, are leading centres of tobacco manufacture, and High Point (pop. in 1900, 4163) in Randolph is noted for its manufacture of furniture.
Transportation.—Railway building was begun in the state in 1836 with the Raleigh & Gaston line, opened from Raleigh to Gaston in 1844 and extended to Weldon in 1852. A longer line, that from Wilmington to Weldon, was completed in 1840. But the greatest period of building was from 1880 to 1890; during this decade the mileage was increased from 1486 m. to 3128 m., or 1642 m., which was more than one-third of all that had been built up to the year 1909, when the total mileage was 4464·14. The principal systems of railways are the Southern, the Atlantic Coast Line, the Norfolk & Southern and the Seaboard Air Line. By means of its navigable waters and safe harbours the state has an extensive coasting trade. The harbours along the sounds and in the estuaries of the rivers are well protected from the storms of the ocean by the long chain of narrow islands in front, but navigation by the largest vessels is interrupted by shoals in the sounds, and especially by bars crossing the inlets between islands. The channel leading to the harbour of Wilmington has been cleared to a depth of 20 ft. or more by dredging and by the construction of jetties and an immense dam, works which were begun by the state in 1823 but from 1828 were carried on from time to time by the national government. The Roanoke river is navigable to Weldon and the Cape Fear river to Fayetteville; the Neuse is navigable for small vessels only to Newbern.
Population.—The population[1] of North Carolina increased from 1,399,750 in 1880 to 1,617,949 in 1890, or 15·6%; to 1,893,810 in 1900, a further increase of 17·1%; and to 2,206,287 in 1910, an increase of 16·5% since 1900. Of the total in 1900 only 4492, or less than 14 of 1% were foreign-born, nearly half of these being natives of Germany and England, 1,263,664 were whites, 624,469 negroes, 5687 Indians and 51 Chinese. Nearly one-fourth of the Indians are Cherokees, who occupy, for the most part, the Qualla Reservation in Swain and Jackson counties, not far from the south-western extremity of the state. The others, numbering in 1907 nearly 5000, living mostly in Robeson county, are of mixed breed and have been named the Croatans, on the assumption (probably baseless) that they are the descendants of John White’s lost colony of 1587. The Cherokees have no ambition to accumulate property, but both they and the Croatans have been generally peaceable and many of them send their children to school—for the Croatans the state provides separate schools. The Baptist and Methodist churches are the leading religious denominations in the state; but there are also Presbyterians, Lutherans, members of the Christian Connexion (O’Kellyites), Disciples of Christ (Campbellites) Episcopalians, Friends, Roman Catholics, Moravians and members of other denominations. Until nearly a century after the founding of the Carolinas there was not a town in North Carolina that had a population of 1000, and the urban population of the state was exceptionally small at the beginning of the rapid rise of the manufacturing industries about 1880. In 1900 the urban population (in places having 4000 inhabitants or more) was 152,019, or 8% of the total; the semi-urban (in incorporated places having less than 4000 inhabitants) was 186,258 or 9·8% of the total; and the rural (outside of incorporated places) was 1,555,533 or 82·1% of the total. But between 1890 and 1900 the urban population increased 56·6% and the semi-urban 61·6%, while the rural increased only 10·6%. The principal cities are Wilmington, Charlotte, Asheville, Raleigh (the capital), Greensboro, Winston and Newbern.
Administration.—North Carolina has been governed under the charters of 1663 and 1665 (1663–1729), under commissions and instructions from the crown (1729–1776), and under the state constitutions of the 18th of December 1776 (amended in 1835, in 1856, and in the Secession Convention of 1861) and of April 1868 (amended in 1872–1873, 1875,[2] 1879, 1888 and 1899). The present constitution, as amended, prescribes that no convention of the people of the state may be called by the legislature unless by the concurrence of two-thirds of all the members of each house followed by an affirmative vote of a majority of the electors voting on the question; and that an amendment to the constitution may be adopted only by a three-fifths vote of each house followed by an affirmative vote of the majority of electors voting on the question. The suffrage provisions containing the famous “grandfather clause” (in Art vi. section 4), were adopted in the form of a constitutional amendment, ratified in August 1900, and in effect on the 1st day of July 1902. All persons otherwise qualified may place their names on the voting register, provided they can read and write any section of the constitution in the English language and have paid on or before the 1st of May the poll tax for the previous year. An exception to the educational requirement is made in favour of any male person who was, on the 1st day of January 1867, or at any time prior thereto, entitled to vote under the laws of any state in the United States wherein he then resided, and in favour of lineal descendants of such persons. This exception remained in force until the 1st of December 1908, after which time all who were on the list became (unless disqualified because convicted of felony) life voters, but new applicants had to stand the educational test.
Perhaps the most notable feature about the administration is the weakness of the governor’s position. He is elected by popular vote[3] for four years, and cannot succeed himself in office. His power is limited by a council of state, a relic of colonial days. This body is not, however, a special board, as in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, but a kind of administrative cabinet as in Iowa, consisting of the secretary of state, the auditor, the treasurer, and the superintendent of
- ↑ The population of the state was 393,751 in 1790; 478,103 in 1800; 555,500 in 1810; 638,829 in 1820; 737,987 in 1830; 753,419 in 1840; 869,039 in 1850; 992,622 in 1860; and 1,071,361 in 1870.
- ↑ The changes made in 1875 were adopted in a convention, were ratified in 1876, and were so numerous that the amended constitution is frequently referred to as the Constitution of 1876.
- ↑ Up to 1835 he was elected annually by the two houses of the legislature, and no man could serve as governor for more than three years in any six successive years. Under an amendment of 1835 he was elected for two years by popular vote of electors for members of the House of Commons, and no man was eligible to serve for more than four years in any term of six years.
